Surgery day is here. We travel to the Presbyterian Hospital. Its on 69th and 1st Avenue. My surgery is scheduled for later in the morning. We do the obligatory administration first. There is a dedicated international patient desk, where we spend a while sorting through paperwork, insurance forms and pre-medical checks.

We then play the waiting game. I’m prepped and sat up in a chair, gown and cap ready to go. We sit and wait. And Wait. And Wait. Eventually, someone comes to our little cubicle. Here we go. Nope. Mardi is asked to go back to the international desk. There is an administration issue. When Mardi returns, the administration issue was our insurer. So she paid $10,000 on our credit card as a deposit, pending insurance coming through. Gotta love a medical system based on the ability of people being able to afford to pay for care!

Within five minutes of Mardi returning, having paid, I’m all good to go. I’m wheeled in on my chair, which transforms to a bed. As I lay back, I hear the distinctive New York accent of Dr Nissen. We chat for a while: he loves his surfing!

He has a student with him. He explains that normally, the student would do the surgery and he would observe. Not today. My tear was so large and the surgery was complex so he’s doing the whole thing. And with that we get started.

Yes, I’m awake for the whole procedure.

He begins by inserting two large chop stick probes into my left eye. Yep, into, through the white and to the retina. It’s a weird feeling.

Dr Nissen chats to me as he works away. I can feel him poking, pulling and prodding around inside my eye as he maps out a strategy. I ask him to tell me what he is doing.

“Imagine I am sewing together two pieces of soaking wet tissue paper. Then imagine that tissue paper is the size of a thumb tac. Then imagine I am doing it underwater.”

Wow. I lie in silence for a while as he works.

As he finishes sewing he says he now needs to fill my eye with oil.  The oil acts as a pressure agent to hold my retina back in place as it heals. He starts to inject oil and comments that mu eye requires a lot as a result of its enlarged shape, a condition I’ve had since birth.

He finishes, patches me up and says it’s time to go.

Mardi joins me as I am sitting in the chair, looking a little pirate like, recovering from my 90 minute ordeal.

Dr Nissen explains that for the next 12 days I need to keep my head at a 45 degree angle facing the ground. This will allow the oil to put upwards pressure on the back of my eye. As annoying as that is, we are in NYC, you look up here, it’s my eyesight we are talking about, so something I will find easy to do.

We are scheduled for a follow up visit the next day.  The patch will come off and we will see if the surgery has worked. For now its back home and some rest.

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